Reliability

Enphase Advantage

Enphase microinverters are used in over 100 countries — from all across Australia and India to Alaska. This means that they operate in very cold but also very hot and humid climates — without fail.

How does Enphase achieve this?

Well, Enphase really puts their micros through the ringer. Every microinverter generation is put through 1,000,000 (yep, that’s 1 million) power-on hours of testing before it is released. This testing includes cycling microinverters from -40°C to 85°C over 1,000 times in specialised chambers. They are exposed to heat and dampness for hours on end, and they even get dropped from 2 meters multiple times. Once Enphase has established the microinverters survive all that, and don’t drop any of their performance, they go into production.

Enphase put it to the test – and string inverters failed within the first few thermal cycles.

But Enphase doesn’t stop there. Each day microinverters are taken from the production line and tested at Enphase laboratories in California and New Zealand. This rigorous, continuous testing ensures that Enphase microinverters stand the test of time.

This graph shows the thermal cycling test. It simulates over 25 years of operation in the type of conditions one would find outdoors on a roof. Enphase consistently outlasted string inverters, which failed in just a fraction of the 600 cycle test.

The Electric Power Research Institute agrees - string inverters fail at greater rates than microinverters.

This chart shows that a string inverter has to be replaced at least once throughout the life of a system. In fact, string inverters are responsible for 50% of all solar lifecycle maintenance costs.